The man, dressed in a thin, worn coat, balanced on the stone barrier at the edge of the dock, his daughter gave a small laugh. His feet carried him in a small twirl, showing off to his little girl how gracefully and balanced he was on the railing. Freezing cold water smacked the wall below roughly, but he gave no notice.
"Papa, papa! How do you do that?" The little girl asked, excitement lacing her little words. The father smiled and said simply;
"I am much older and have been practicing for a long time." His daughter gave a small laugh, peering up at him with a wide smile. He laughed as well and went to pivot around again but his foot hit a slick section of ice and he crashed over the railing.
Straight into the freezing water.
"Papa!" Screamed the little girl, jumping forward, trying to grasp the fabric of his worn coat before he fell too far, but she missed and even if she had caught the leather she'd be pulled down with him.
"Help!" The man heard his daughter screaming before he went beneath the waves.
The man opened his eyes and saw a woman standing before him, dressed in a rough, wool dress and apron. She smiled at him, placing a gentle hand on his face. "You always cause so much trouble, my son," she said, laughing softly. Her eyes smiled, true happiness on her face as she shook her head at him like he was a young boy and not a middle aged soldier. He remembered trying to steal that loaf of bread from the market like it was just this morning. His mother shook her head again and turned, pulling a nearly identical loaf from her satchel and began slicing it for their dinner. The golden light of the setting sun made him feel at home for the first time in a long time..
He blinked and found himself elsewhere. Darkness was the main feature now and the man felt himself heavy in black clothing, his arms hanged at his sides and he felt totally and utterly useless. A hand placed itself roughly on his shoulder as he went forward to a wooden box, a coffin ready to be buried. The man pulled away from his father's grasp on his shoulder, peers in the box though he knew what sat inside.
The pale, beautiful face of his mother greeted him. His eyes watered though this had happened many years ago. The man swept a lock of brown hair away from his dear mother's eyes and sighed. He turned, now greeted by the stern face of his unmoved father. Steel gray eyes held warm brown for a moment.
The man twirled the sword in his hands, pointing it at his father, waiting for his move first before their training began. His father gave a smile and darted forward, going to slam the wooden sword straight into his son's gut. The man fell backwards, flat on the ground as he gasped for air.
A woman and her husband walked down the docks when they heard screaming from farther ahead. The couple exchanged a glance before hurrying towards the screaming. They found a little girl screaming her head off;
"Papa! Papa!"
The husband hurried forward and looked over the barrier much like the little girl's father had looked into his mother's coffin. In the frozen waters below was the dark form of the man.
"Shit, shit, shit." The husband repeated several times before rushing to the nearby ladder and scurrying down it, holding on to the cold wood with reddening fingers. He freed one hand and leaned toward the water, grasping at the man's coat.
Once.
Twice.
The third time his fingers managed to snag the collar of his coat and pulled the soldier towards his rescuer. The man was pulled up the ladder and pushed onto the dock, where he fell into a heap. The little girl crawled to her father and went to shake him but was drawn back by the wife, while her husband pressed his hands to the man's chest, trying to get him to take a breath. After a few minutes, just when the husband was going to give up, the girl's father gasped and heaved a few breaths in and out, coughing roughly. The couple had discovered the father and daughter took either arm of the man and heaved him up, beginning a slow walk to the clinic.
The man gasped for air as his father struck him with the sword and he fell, feeling a heat wash over him.
The heat turned to a bright red blush as he started at the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life. The market seemed slow that day but now even slower as he tried to not miss her. The man training to be a soldier followed the woman through the market, finally catching her.
"Wait, miss?" The woman turned to look at him.
"Mm..yes?" She raised a brow.
"Oh..uh.." He stuttered for the first time in his life and the woman laughed, his cheeks turning redder.
"Walk with me will you? I have somewhere to be but a talk on the way wouldn't be a bad idea." He seemed a little shocked at her offer, but than stepped forward, carefully taking her arm as she offered it and walking with her down the road.
His eyes looked at his wife's. Yesterday it seemed he had only just met her but now the two stood married. Carefully the two made their life from the pieces that his father had left it in once he had disowned him for marrying a simple girl who's father was dead and mother was a maid. Months past and the couple found them self expecting a child and that summer she was born. A beautiful little girl who's first looks nearly rivaled her mother's! The man smiled at his daughter.
The man who was slowly growing warmer mumbled to himself in his sleep, twisting under the covers of the clinic cot. "Thank you for bringing him here, but he was in the water far too long..I don't know if he'll.." The nurse glanced at the little girl before lower her voice so only the couple could hear her whispered words "I don't know if he will wake.." The man smiled in his sleep before going back to his mumbling.
The sickness surrounded the man, taking over his little home. His wife and daughter grew ill from the simple winter cold. They shouldn't be this sick but they were. He prayed to the Imperial Spirit and any other being he could think of. Please let them be okay. His daughter's improved after a terrible week of coughs and fears of her breath stopping. His wife, on the other hand, was not as lucky. He left for a moment to get her a bowl of soup. Her eyes had been open and a loving smile on her face, she was better.
The man left the room, and when he returned his wife's eyes were glassy as she had breathed her last as he left. "No!" He yelled, dropping the bowl to the floor and flinging himself at his wife, sinking to his knees "Wake up! Wake up!" He cried. His daughter, two at the time, entered the room with her small blanket.
"Papa?" She asked, snapping his attention from the corpse in the bed, "Why are you crying, papa?" She asked again. The man looked at his little girl's mother, another tear dripping down his face as he stood and went to his daughter, picking her up and wrapping her in his arms.
"My dear..I must speak to you.." And he carried her back to her room where she could never see the glass eyes that had replaced her mother's.
The man, dressed in a thin, worn coat, balanced on the stone barrier at the edge of the dock, his daughter gave a small laugh. His feet carried him in a small twirl, showing off to his little girl how gracefully and balanced he was on the railing. Freezing cold water smacked the wall below roughly, but he gave no notice.
"Papa, papa! How do you do that?" The little girl asked, excitement lacing her little words. The father smiled and said simply;
"I am much older and have been practicing for a long time." His daughter gave a small laugh, peering up at him with a wide smile. He laughed as well and went go pivot around again but his foot hit a slick section of ice and he crashed over the railing.
Her voice followed him to the water and his memories seemed to freeze from the cold.
The man held his breath for a moment before letting it out with a relieved sigh. He never took another breath as the chill from the water stopped his heart.
The winter claimed another soul.
Last edited:
